Commentary
Olympic gold not built on prayer
By Juan Miguel Luz
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:51:00 08/30/2008
Filed Under: Summer Olympics, Sport, Education
Another forgettable Olympics. No medals. Third in a row. You would think that by now we would have learned that Olympic gold is not built on prayer, signature campaigns, cash incentives, presidential orders or plain luck.
Maybe we should get rid of the presidential appointees that lead Philippine sports and replace them with Manny Pacquiao, Freddie Roach, Paeng Nepomuceno, Efren “Bata” Reyes, Django Bustamante and our other world-class billiards players. They understand that it takes a system of training to win in any sport.
Seriously, we cannot hope to attain Olympic gold unless we build a serious grass-roots sports program. But we have a bigger problem.
How do you produce a world-class runner in say, the 1,500-meter event?
Olympic rules allow up to three entries per individual track event. In our case, if you hold a national meet and take the top three winners per region, that will make 51 entries from 17 regions of the country.
If each province and city enters three athletes in the regional meet, that will make up to about 800 athletes in all 17 regional meets just for the 1,500-meter event.
If each province and city had its own meet to pick its entrants to the regional meet, the number of 1,500-meter athletes would swell to anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 nationwide. And if every school participated in the town meet and had a 1,500-meter athlete or two, those numbers would swell further. Multiply this by all the different events and there would be tens of thousands of schoolchildren in sports.
Of course, not all of them would be world class but the larger the pool of athletes in sports, the greater the likelihood of finding potential world-class talent in the country. None of this assumes that kids will wake up one day and run faster or jump higher than ever. There is need for training and competition at the community level. This means grass-roots or school-based sports.
Unfortunately, this social infrastructure is missing. Moreover, it underscores an even bigger problem that I mentioned earlier: Most of our children are not physically fit to compete due to poor health and nutrition.
Of the 12.5 million pupils, aged 6-12 years old, in public elementary schools nationwide, 30 percent are underweight and 41 percent are under-height or stunted (FNRI/DOST). The stunted growth is a result of poor nutrition at birth and in the early years. Two-thirds of elementary kids are iodine deficient; over one-third have iron deficiency anemia. Turning this problem around will take anywhere from 6-12 years—assuming we are serious about arresting poor health and nutrition among very young children—and we should start today. Any chance at Olympic gold requires a large pool of qualified athletes from which to choose the best. To build that pool, we need to establish strong grassroots sports programs for young athletes all over the country. For kids to play grass-roots sports, they must be physically fit. To be physically fit, children must be in good health.
That is the essence of the Olympic success formula.
The Department of Education under then-Secretary Edilberto de Jesus laid the groundwork for such a program—From Good Health to Great Sports—as follows:
• Grades 1-3: Focus on health and nutrition with in-school feeding as the core intervention.
• Grades 4 through high school: Engage all children in physical education and a physical fitness test twice during the school year (based on existing international norms.)
• Grades 5 through high school: Introduce team sports (to inculcate teamwork in competition) and individual sports.
• Encourage intramural and inter-school athletics at different levels leading up to the Palarong Pambansa, or National Games.
All of this was premised on a system of health, organization (e.g., the schools) and a framework for sports development. Our schools should build the pool of potential national athletes.
In the recent Beijing games, the most successful country in terms of change in medal production from previous games was Great Britain. After a very poor showing in Sydney in 2000, the Blair government overhauled British sports.
Eight years later, in Beijing, Britain’s gold and total medal tally far surpassed anything it had in the past.
Of course, there is room for individual talent and sports specialization. The Kenyans and Ethiopians are kings of long distance running and the Jamaicans have ruled the sprints. We are known in bowling, billiards and wushu. Unfortunately, they are not yet Olympic events.
Will there be an Olympic gold in our future? Yes, if we begin to build a system for good health, physical fitness and grass-roots/school sports.
Pacquiao was right when he said that luck alone is not enough to win the gold. It’s a system of training that physically and mentally prepares one to do battle.
A national game plan for Olympic preparation premised on good health and physical fitness started right away could bring us that coveted Olympic gold three or four Olympic Games from now. Otherwise, our prayers will remain unanswered.
Juan Miguel Luz is president of the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction in Silang, Cavite, and former education undersecretary.
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